


blue, you painted me golden

by charleybradburies



Series: Geraskier Week 2020 [1]
Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Author might fuck around and continue this later, Colors, Eye Color, Feelings Realization, Geraskier Week, M/M, POV Alternating, POV Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, POV Jaskier | Dandelion, Realization, Soulmates, Time Skips, Witchers Have Feelings (The Witcher)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22729387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies
Summary: Everything in the world is golden.And his blues got brighter.Geraskier Week: Day 1 (Soulmates).Title from "Dancing with our Hands Tied" by Taylor Swift.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Geraskier Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1634425
Comments: 11
Kudos: 251





	blue, you painted me golden

**Author's Note:**

> Please enjoy, kudos, and comment!

Everything in the world is golden.

Well, to different tones and degrees, all manner of different shades that represented the original colors of things. But Julian knows it's the same general color, because that's how sight always works - your soulmate's eyes colored everything, until you meet and know and love them, and ultimately all of the colors, of which there are apparently three whole _categories_ of color, and more than thrice as many colors, are visible to you.

So, he knows one thing about his soulmate, even when he's little: that their eyes are gold. He also knows his parents hate to speak of it, which he assumes for a long time is because they're nobility, and nobles don't get to track down and marry their soulmates when some other alliance is better.

That's probably part of it, in truth. 

But then, his vision also goes dark sometimes, goes greyscale, like it does when someone's soulmate dies without having met them. He's immensely sad the first time he loses his gold sight, especially because he's only nine, and he's already a romantic, and that's far too soon for him to lose someone he's never gotten the chance to meet. He's crying to his older sister when all of a sudden the color flows back in, which should be impossible - but it's not, and it happens numerous times throughout his life, along with times he gets to see a couple others, like one he's quite sure is red. It's another reason his parents are upfront about not wanting him to find whoever's eyes those were. 

He's never even met someone with gold eyes, let alone black, or even someone else who saw gold, he muses eventually. It's highly unlikely he'll ever meet this person. As such, he's not opposed to finding romance elsewhere, seeing as it's such a lovely thing even when not between people fate intended to be twined together. 

He realizes one day in Oxenfurt, when he's chatting with some classmates about soulmates and their studies, that his soulmate must be a witcher. It made no sense, but in terms of colors - and the occasonal lack thereof - that was all that fit. 

~~

Witchers weren't supposed to have soulmates. If they were born with the ability to see color at all, their mutations or their early death would take the color from the person ill-fated enough to be bound to them. The witcher would be given the ability to see color, and while the colors were fairly muted still, it meant none was strongest, no one color cast itself over the rest.

Usually, at least.

For Geralt, after the normal Trials, that was indeed the case. For a time, he had an array of muted colors. Vesemir pointed out to him which were which, and he learned with eagerness. 

Then they'd done even more to him.

And his blues got brighter.

~~

He's not sure if it's because of his fate, but Jaskier, the man Julian grows into, is a wanderer. He gets restless easily, and he longs for adventure, always has. So when he meets a witcher, one he's heard of - even if for less-than-great reasons - he decides he ought to go with him. 

Geralt of Rivia, though, is not at all happy to meet him, and he hopes that's only because he's a relatively fragile young man who embarrasses himself and doesn't know how to rough it anywhere near as well as a witcher with many years more life experience. 

He hopes, through spending time together, he'll learn more about the sort of people witchers really are, maybe even gain a friend - an attractive friend, but still, he won't hedge his bets on more than friendship.

Then, Geralt explicitly appeals to their captors to save Jaskier's life.

The bard is still reeling from - and trying to write about - the experience when he realizes that grasses have changed colors, to something deeper, darker. The name _green_ comes to mind, and he hopes it's the right one, since it's been a couple years since he's read about the topic.

He makes sure to do his best to keep up with Roach's much longer stride. 

~~

Geralt sees all colors. He knows that blues are brighter, sharper, more beautiful, but he knows that without magical extenuating circumstances, the day will come that they'll fade. 

The poor person fated for him was human, young, and horribly unlucky. A witcher's life was neither safe nor suited for love or family, and their desire for that would have to contend with what they'd likely been taught about witchers. 

Who would ever believe that a witcher could come to love them? Who would be so generous and hopeful and yet survive to adulthood? 

For their sake, he hopes his soulmate is enough like him to be discerning and wary, to keep themselves safe even in the face of that great love of which the poets always write.

Oh, what a cruel sense of humor, destiny has, the fucker. 

Jaskier's regaling the crowd at this betrothal that Geralt very much wants not to be at; they are, naturally, enchanted by his songs, by his presence, and Geralt does not spend the entirety of the night so involved in protecting the bard that he cannot be among them. 

Princess Pavetta's dress is a shining emerald hue, which in the moment is the first clue that he's reached a point it'll be terribly difficult to turn back from. He already knows Jaskier's eye color, because he can see it, he always has - he sees that blue far too often, really - but he can also see other colors and he can _ignore_ that particular blue.

That is, at least, until he's sitting next to the Cintran queen and realizes that he's being sung about, another song where the bard declares him a hero, and in the few moments that he takes his eyes away, the yellows and golds are becoming bright, too - including Jaskier's own doublet.

~~

Jaskier's curiosity eventually gets the better of him.

They're around a fire, eating a dinner Geralt's recently hunted. Geralt's hair is still drying from the river bath Jaskier had insisted on after the day's work, about which Jaskier is composing - or rather, trying to compose - a song. 

Until it occurs to him to rhyme "coal" with "soul" and it sort of...slips out.

"Do witchers have soulmates?"

Geralt pauses, and wears a look of consideration for a couple moments. Jaskier tries to watch his eyes, tries not to think about how it wasn't many days ago that he realized how _orange_ fire could be.

"Sometimes," Geralt answers in a soft tone, and can probably feel Jaskier's heart jump with his hope, for the singular moment it does. "Before the mutations."


End file.
